The family of Africa’s foremost
scholar of Oral Literature and award-winning novelist Prof. Isidore
Okpewho who died on September 4th, 2016 has announced arrangements
for his final rite of passage. The prolific author of over a dozen
books and scores of academic articles will be buried at Gate of
Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover, New Jersey, United States of America
on Saturday, September 17.
The internment will be preceded by
Visitation/Viewing and a funeral mass on Friday, September 16th, 2016
at S.t Vincent de Paul Blessed Sacrament Church, 465 Clubhouse Road,
Vestal, in Upstate New York.
Okpewho who retired not long ago as a
Distinguished Professor from State University of New York,
Binghamton, lived with his wife and four children in the U.S for
about 25 years. He will be remembered for his robust and seminal
contribution to the understanding of the oral performance in Africa,
his experimental fiction, and his numerous outstanding mentees across
the world.
News of his passing has sparked
reactions from the literati, as well as a broad range of friends,
associates, admirers, and public officials in Nigeria and abroad.
Among these are President Muhammadu
Buhari and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of his home state, Delta State.
Tributes to the eminent literary figure have poured in across
multiple media spaces and professional list serves that include the
International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA) of
which he had served as President and USA Africa Dialogue.
Amid the moving tributes is one by
another pioneer and prodigious scholar of Oral Literature, Prof Ruth
Finnegan. “There is a beautiful ancient Greek poem, beautifully
translated too, which I have found comforting - and true. I share it
with you,” writes Prof Finnegan, emeritus professor at The Open
University, U.K:
